


Wallace & Gromit in the North Atlantic

by grencle (christinefromsherwood)



Category: Titanic (1997), Wallace & Gromit
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Fairy Tale Style, Fix-It, Friendship, Gen, RMS Titanic, Reader-Interactive, Suitable for Children, write a different ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 21:31:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7191332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/christinefromsherwood/pseuds/grencle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, some of you might know that I’m an English teacher in a land where English isn’t the mother tongue. That means that people have to learn it, and learn it well to be able to communicate with the world beyond our borders. </p><p>Some start very young. </p><p>Two of my favourite students are just 9 years old and they started learning English when they were 3. (One of them even started taking Spanish lessons last year!) They are both wonderful little boys (and so smart, they are almost fluent! at 9!) and taking into account all of their other after-school activities (one’s got 8, the other 5 - in 5 work days) they were little angels during our lessons. </p><p>This is why I decided to do this. (Read on if you want to know more) And having done this, I’ve decided to post this online as an interactive story. For those of you who are perhaps learning English as well, or have young children who are too grown up for their age and traumatised by having seen the movie Titanic a little too young. :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning

June 12th, 2016

Dear E and R,

don’t worry this isn’t English homework! You don’t even need to read this right away, just try not to lose it, OK? And maybe look at it when you’re bored of playing Clash of Clans and get curious in July or in August, or even in a couple of years. ;)

This is something I’ve decided to do to thank you for being on your best behaviour during our English lessons and giving it your best effort even when you were really tired or worried about tests and school and other free time activities. I really enjoyed our lessons and I hope you liked them, too. 

“What is this then?” and “Would you just tell me already?!”, I can almost see you rolling your eyes impatiently. Don’t you worry, boys. :) The English say: “Good things come to those who wait.” or “Patience, young grasshopper.” 

So, here goes:  
I’ve decided to write a story for each of you. It’s got some of your favourite things: Titanic, Wallace&Gromit, a best friend and a mouse.

You see, I was a bit disappointed when you told me that you didn’t like fairy-tales and that you thought they were just for kids and stupid. I have always loved fairy-tales and fantasy books and stories. But then when we watched Wallace & Gromit together (which is a sort of a fairy-tale) you seemed to enjoy yourself quite a bit. So I figured that maybe you just haven’t read or heard the right fairy-tales yet. 

You see, the great thing about stories is that if you care and want to hard enough, you can change them, write them better and/or rewrite their ending. 

So, if you don’t like what I’ve written for you, it’s OK and I get it.  
But maybe you just won’t like the way it ends or what the heroes say or do. Well then, you can sit down and think about it and make it better. You don’t even have to write it down, just imagine it in your mind. 

Trust me, it’s fun. I do it with all of my favourite stories, even Harry Potter and The Hobbit.

Have fun (on your summer holidays, at school, with English,...)!

 

One of your English teachers

P.S. If your name begins with an E, [read this.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7191332/chapters/16321691)  
If it starts with an R, [click here.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7191332/chapters/16321346)  
If you aren't interested in the adventures of little boys or people, [read the whole story only from Gromit's POV.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7191332/chapters/16321847)  


If you read this and you (or the person you read it to) decide you (they) would prefer a different version of events, give me a shout at [my tumblr page](http://thesquishy.co.vu) I'll gladly post your version of events (or the continuation) and name you a co-author. ;) Or just post it and tag me, so I can read it and link to it in here.


	2. Richard & Gromit: In the North Atlantic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A well-read little know-it-all Richie faces his biggest fear. He's bested everyone he's ever competed against. He's won at everything all his life. 
> 
> Can he win this fight against fate itself? Can he save his friends from the icy waters of the North Atlantic?

“Uh-oh,” thought Gromit when his paws hit a hardwood floor and his nose smelled the ocean. In his bedroom, where he went to sleep last night, there was nice soft carpet and no salt or fish for miles around.

  
But Gromit wasn’t in his room any more. He could see that now. His eyes adjusted to the dark and his four legs to the strange swaying of the floor and suddenly he knew where he was.

  
On the deck of a ship!

  
And not just any old ship! This one was surely almost 900 feet long and there were four ginormous funnels sticking up and out into the starry sky from the highest deck. And boy, was it beautiful!

  
“Oh no,” said a voice from next to him.

  
Gromit was startled and growled a little.

  
He had thought he was alone. And wasn’t this strange? Where was Wallace? Usually they went on adventures together.

  
“No, no, no, no! This is not good,” continued the voice. It sounded young. Gromit peered into the darkness.

  
There was a boy sitting on the deck just a few feet away from him. He looked unhappy and a little panicked.

  
“What’s the matter with him?” thought Gromit. He decided to find out. He got up slowly. He didn’t want to spook the boy.

  
“This is not good. This is very bad. Very, very bad!” repeated the boy while looking around. Suddenly, he saw Gromit.

  
“Gromit?! Is that you?!” he shouted. Then he jumped to his feet, rushed to the dog and hugged him. “I’m so happy to see you! Things can’t be that bad if you are here!”

  
Gromit was very surprised. He didn’t know the boy at all and he had no idea that things were bad.

  
“Where’s Wallace? Is he coming soon?” asked the boy when they stopped hugging. Gromit shrugged his shoulders.

  
He had no idea how to say: “I don’t know who you are, where we are, how we got here or where my best friend is and why he isn’t here with me.”

  
“I’m Richard,” said the boy. Then he held out his hand.

 

*

Richard was a clever boy. He was only 9 years old and already he knew more about airplanes, cars and ships than most boys twice his age.

That’s why he got very worried when he suddenly woke up and realised that he wasn’t in his own bed at home, but on a ship.

The second thing he realised was that it was very cold. You see, he was only wearing his pajamas.

The third thing he realised was that the ship seemed very familiar. He was sure he had seen it before.

He sat in the dark for a short while and thought and thought.

And then he stopped thinking. Because suddenly, he knew.

This was the Titanic!

He was on the Titanic! The unsinkable ship that sank on 15th April 1916 on her maiden voyage!

And Richard panicked.

Because he knew all about the passengers, the numbers of lifeboats and just ALL of it.

He had seen the movie, he had read up on the real story afterwards. This was the RMS Titanic and it was really cold already and soon (maybe in the next minute!!) it would crash into an iceberg somewhere south of Newfoundland! With him, Richard, aboard!

So, Richard did the only think he could: he panicked.

And then he started to cry a bit.

And then he saw the dog. It looked familiar and at first he wasn’t sure why.

“That’s Gromit!” he realised.

It had to be Gromit! It simply had to be. And since it was, they were all saved. They were going to be alright. Because where Groomit went, Wallace soon followed and together they had adventures and rescued people.

That was just the way it was.

“Where’s Wallace? Is he coming soon?” Richard asked after he finished hugging his dog-friend. Only when Gromit shrugged his shoulders did Richard remember that the poor dog couldn’t speak.

“Oh never mind, then,” he said and smiled at his friend. It was the nervous kind of a smile. “I guess that you don’t know me, huh?”

Gromit shook his head.

“I’m Richard,” Richard introduced himself and held out his right hand. Gromit shook it. It felt nice. And Mum had said that it was a polite thing to do when meeting strangers.

“I’m 9 and I know a lot about ships and I think that we are in trouble,” Richard added. Gromit looked surprised.

 

**

...on the ship Titanic... hit an iceberg... 24 kn, that’s 44 km/h... too fast”

Gromit felt like his head was spinning. The boy, Richard, talked faster than Wallace when he forgot to buy crackers in the shop and they were out.

And then...

“HEEEELP!” came a piercing shriek.

“What was that?” Richard asked.

Gromit’s head shot up when he heard it. His first instinct was to shake his head at Wallace’s dramatics over needing “Assistance” again, but then he remembered that Wallace wasn’t there.

Someone else was calling for help!

Gromit was sprinting towards the sound before he knew that he had begun with Richard right behind him, his little face all white with worry.

Then they both stopped as suddenly as they took off. Because Gromit saw something that made his nose crinkle up in confusion.

An another boy.

And a small creature , a mouse, but one like he had never seen before. But which of them had called for help?

“What the bloody hell is your problem?! Would you just be quiet, Mouse!?” the boy shouted at the animal in his hand.

Gromit growled. He didn’t like mice very much, but he also didn’t like children who were mean to animals.

“Eddie?” came from his right. Richard’s eyes lit up when he looked at the boy. “What are you doing here?”

“Richie?” said the mean boy, looking suddenly much less mean. “Is that you?”

“That’s Richie!” squeaked the mouse and Gromit pressed his long dog ears close to his head. She was very loud.

So loud that Richard noticed her, his mouth dropped open and he pointed at her.

 

**

Richard was so happy to see Eddie that he almost ran over and gave him a hug, same as Gromit. But then he noticed the strange thing in his hand.

“What is that?” he asked and pointed. Then Eddie’s face went red and he shrugged.

“Only Mouse,” he mumbled.

“Really? That doesn’t look at all like a proper mouse,” argued Richard and Eddie’s face got even redder.

“Well, it is a mouse. It’s my Mouse!” he said. He sounded a bit angry.

Richard bit his lip. He was certain that that was not a mouse. He had read all about them and seen lots of pictures.

Sure, there were different kinds, but none of them looked even remotely like the little loud thing in Eddie’s hand. Eddie had to know that!

“I didn’t know you had a mouse,” said Richard instead and Eddie simply shrugged again.

“Do you know what’s going on?” he asked and Richard remembered the bigger problem.

So he began to explain it all.

 

**

“Where is Wallace?” thought Gromit. They were all just sitting there, not doing anything after the first boy, Richard, told his story about what was waiting for them in the near future..

Wallace would know what to do and he simply had to be around somewhere! Gromit was just on the verge of going to find him, when one of the boys, Richard, stood up and said:

“We need a plan!”

So Gromit sat down again. Whenever Wallace said this, the next word that followed was usually-

“Gromit?” said Richard and Gromit sighed when he saw that they were all looking at him.

Gromit looked back at them and wished he could say:

“What are you looking at me for? I’m a dog! Sure, I have my talents: I can rescue sheep, prevent penguin crime, build a spaceship, bake bread and grow excellent vegetables,

but I have never traveled back in time before! I am only a dog!”

So he just shrugged his shoulders, nervously pulled on the bungee rope around his waist and then in a fit of clarity pointed at the small boats that sat in a row by the railing.

“Gromit, you are a genius!” said Eddie excitedly. Richard had jumped to his feet and was nodding.

“I’m starting to like you, human puppies,” thought Gromit, pleased.

“Yes, you are! That’s it exactly. Right now, there are only 20 lifeboats on the ship. We just need to make more!” Richard shouted and Gromit raised his ears and eyebrows.

That was not what he had in mind at all.

“But how?” asked Mouse as if she could read his mind.

How, indeed...

 

**

 

Richard’s mind was whirling. After he had explained everything to Eddie and his strange mouse, everything had seemed hopeless for a while. How could they stop a giant ship like the Titanic from hitting an iceberg?

And then Gromit had that fantastic idea and now Richard knew what they had to do.

Maybe they couldn’t stop the crash, but they could still save everyone! They simply needed more lifeboats! Everyone said that if Titanic had carried more lifeboats, things would have been different!

“We just need to make more lifeboats,” he repeated, thoughtfully. Then he discovered the other fly in the ointment.

He turned to the inventor-dog.

“Gromit, how do you make a lifeboat?”

For some reason, Richard felt that the look Gromit gave him looked a bit angry. He was about to ask what the matter was, but then Gromit’s ears suddenly straightened, both his paws grabbed at his bungee rope and the inventor-dog suddenly looked excited enough to wag his short tail.

“I bet Gromit just got another idea!” said Eddie and the mouse in his palm let out a short excited squeak.

And then Gromit got up, nodded his head at all of them and sprinted away.

 

**

Gromit had indeed got an idea when he took off and sprinted away from their small group of time travellers. He had no idea how it happened that he had his bungee with him (he never wore it to bed), but he wasn’t about to look this particular gift-horse in the mouth.

Instead, he put his nose to the floor and sniffed. And then he ran. And then he smelled the air. And then he sniffed at the floor again.

He was looking for something.

He had an idea that might just work!

He and Wallace had built a spaceship with junk they’d found in their cellar and there were lots of things you could use to make a boat to be found on a ship.

Then he got it, then he smelled it!

The sweet smell of onions caramelizing in shimmering oil. His stomach growled at him, but Gromit gave it a disapproving glare.

If he could, he would bark in excitement.

Gromit untied the bungee from around his waist and made a clever knot around one of the rails.

Then he smiled at the night sky and jumped.

 

**

Something thudded and scraped against the deck somewhere to the right and Richard screamed.

They had hit the iceberg!

And they didn’t have enough lifeboats for everyone yet!

They didn’t have a chance.

He could feel tears springing to his eyes. He wiped them away angrily.

“What’s going on, Richie? What’s wrong?” Eddie kept asking. Richard didn’t know what to tell him.

Suddenly, the thing Eddie called Mouse made a strange noise that wasn’t only crying or scared squeaking. And Richie wanted to kick her.

He wasn’t crying and even if he was, SHE had no right to laugh at him! She was just a stupid mouse!

“Just go away, you stupid-” he shouted at the both of them, Eddie and his stupid Mouse. He wanted them to leave him alone!

And then they both just left him there and ran away! The horrible Mouse was even laughing about it! He could still hear her.

Suddenly he heard Eddie’s voice.

“Richie! Come here!”

But he didn’t sound like he was making fun of him, so Richard went reluctantly.

And after he found his friends in the dark, he was glad that he’d gone.

“Gromit, you are a genius!” he shouted, repeating Eddie from before. Because there was Gromit, Mouse and Eddie standing next to a pile of lifeboat-making material.

It wasn’t an iceberg what he’d heard before! It was Gromit bringing all of the stuff to them on his bungee!

There was tons of fabric and oil and string!

They could make lifeboats out of that! What more could they need?

He threw back his head and laughed. Maybe they were going to be alright after all!

“Right, I’ve got a plan!” he announced.

“Really?” said Eddie and Richard glared at him a little. He sounded like he had misgivings.

“Yes, I do!” said Richard. “We need to pour oil on the fabric. That will make it waterproof.”

Gromit nodded approvingly.

“Then we need to fold it a couple of times and draw a plan of a lifeboat.”

“Just one plan?” asked Eddie.

“Of course!” Richard answered.

“Okay?” said Eddie and Richard rolled his eyes. Sometimes Eddie could be so slow on the uptake.

“We won’t need to draw more than one if we fold the fabric and cut it right!”

“That’s brilliant! I can draw the plan! I draw better than you,” Eddie shouted excitedly and Richard frowned.

“I can draw just as well!” he argued. He could draw the whole ship in his sleep if he wanted to! He’d like to see Eddie try to do that!

“I will draw the plan!” Eddie said angrily. “You can cut the boat after.”

Richard frowned. He didn’t like it when people thought they were smarter than him and told him what to do!

“No, I will draw the plan! I’m better than you!” he shouted. He knew that it wasn’t a nice thing to say, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t the truth!

And Mum said that he should always be honest with people. But Eddie looked so angry just then...

“No, you are so not!” Eddie shouted. His ears were all red. “You are just a stupid cry-baby!”

And Richard wanted to hit him in his stupid red face. He felt like his heart would burn up right in his chest if he didn’t get to hurt his friend in some way.

“And you are just a-”

A terrible shriek.

Richard started. For a moment he wasn’t sure what was happening or what was making that horrible noise, but then he noticed Eddie’s little Mouse standing on the pile of fabric, tiny paws at her hips. It was her who shrieked.

And she looked scary. Richard was almost glad that he couldn’t understand what she was saying.

“I’m sorry, Richie,” Eddie said as soon as Mouse paused to take a breath. “That was really nasty.”

Richard nodded hesitantly. He wasn’t exactly sure what had just happened.

“Do you really want to draw the plan?” Eddie asked and Richard had to admit that he didn’t.

“Nah, you do it,” he said. “I’ll go and ask Gromit about some scissors.”

And so they began.

Gromit helped them spread the fabric and fold it, then Eddie and Mouse sat down together and drew the plan. Gromit took the time to use his bungee again and find them two pairs of enormous scissors and when Eddie was done with his drawing, Richard and Gromit took out their scissors and began to cut away at the fabric.

It wasn’t easy. The folded fabric behaved like it didn’t want to be cut at all, the threads clinging to each other with surprising strength. Richard felt as if his whole hand and forearm were on fire.

And then suddenly they were done and in front of them there was a pile of forty new lifeboats waiting to be... sewed!?

“Uh-oh,” said Richard. “What are we going to do, Eddie?”

He didn’t know how to sew!

He was trying not to cry again but it was really hard. He realised how stupid he had been. “Fabric doesn’t float on water. Even when it’s waterproof.”

Eddie nodded again. And then the strangest thing Richard had ever seen happened.

Eddie’s Mouse hopped down from his shoulder, landed in the balls of string and started to squeak at them happily.

“You know how to sew?” Eddie asked her. And then there was more squeaking and Mouse pulled out a tiny, spiky metal thing from a belt that Richard hadn’t noticed she had.

“Does she know how to sew?” he asked. Eddie looked dumbfounded and only mumled a hesitant: “Yes.”

And then Richard couldn’t believe his eyes.

Tiny, scared Mouse took hold of two of their lifeboat fabric shapes and started to jump around faster than Richard had ever thought it possible for any animal to move. She was sewing.

And suddenly there was one lifeboat, then two, three, six, ten, fifteen, eighteen lifeboats! All finished!

“Do you have magic?” Richard heard Eddie ask. The strange creature stopped what she was doing and looked at his friend. Richard didn’t understand what she said and by the look on Eddie’s face, it seemed that he didn’t either.

“DOES she have magic?” he asked and again, Eddie only shrugged and said: “I guess.”

Richard never got the chance to ask more. Because that’s when it happened.

The iceberg.

Richard had known all along that this was coming. He thought he knew what to expect.

He’d had no idea.

For a whole minute the beautiful RMS Titanic groaned and shook as the iceberg scraped and tore at its metal sides deep underwater. And then there was silence.

“Richie?”

Richard turned to look at his friend. He saw that Eddie was shaking. Richard was shaking too.

“We’re going to be fine, right?” Eddie asked and Richard had no idea what to tell him.

But then Mouse started squeaking again and suddenly Eddie got this strange look on his face and asked:

“What’s an air compressor?”

“That’s something you use to pump air into mattresses and tires and stuff. Why?” Richard answered. Eddie shrugged his shoulders again.

“Mouse says we need it and should ask Gromit for it,” said Eddie.

And that’s when Richard looked around and with dread settling around the pit of his stomach realised one thing they had overlooked.

Neither Gromit, nor his bungee were there anymore.

“Where’s Gromit?!” Richard shouted. He could hear Eddie screaming the same question.

**

Once Gromit saw that the strange Mouse knew what she was doing, he untied his bungee and quietly padded away.

He liked the two boys well enough, but he simply had to go and look for Wallace! If what Richard said was correct, Wallace could be on some other deck of this doomed ship, trying to find him. And he had no idea!

Gromit couldn’t just leave him to his fate!

He was a good dog!

He raised his nose in the air and tried to catch Wallace’s scent. That strange blend of really smelly cheese, soap and motor oil.

Nothing.

He jumped over the railings and climbed to the lower deck. There he walked and sniffed and walked and sniffed and walked and sniffed till he felt his paws hurt.

Then he sat down and put his long ears over his eyes.

It was hopeless.

How could he find his one friend on such an enormous ship?

It was hopeless.

There would be no more “Gromit, old chum, I need assistance!”, no more “Cheese, Gromit!”, no more “This is the day, Gromit! Totty’s invited me to tea, old pal!”, no more “Groooomiiit!”

Gromit could feel tears stinging in his eyes. For a moment it felt almost as though he had really heard Wallace call his name. He shook his head and laughed sadly.

“Groooomit!”

But there it was again!

Gromit raised his head and slowly looked around. He couldn’t see anyone.

“Gromit?” And there it was again!

“Where are you, old pal?”

And suddenly, as if someone turned on a switch in his brain, suddenly Gromit knew exactly where Wallace was. He could smell the motor oil, the soap and smelly cheese!

Gromit got to his feet and ran faster than he had ever run in his life.

“Oh, whatever is the matter with you, Gromit?” Wallace chuckled when Gromit bounded over to him and hugged him. Then he petted him on the head and Gromit didn’t even mind that. “Wherever did you wander off to? I’ve been looking for you all over. Do you know where we are, by any chance? I have to tell you, Gromit, I had half a mind to stop looking for you! I found a cracking room here. Smashing, I tell you! There are cars and a plane and-”

Grrrrrrrrooooaaaaaawl!

Gromit never got to hear the whole list.

That’s when it happened and Gromit knew that the boy, Richard, was telling the truth.

“Oh, what do you that was, Gromit?” Wallace chuckled uneasily.

For a long while, there was silence for a while and then an suddenly, first like a small trickle of water, then like the roar of a rushing river, human voices started to appear out of the darkness and Gromit had to cover his sensitive ears with his paws.

Such an clamor!

“Quite a row that, huh, Gromit!” said Wallace again.

Gromit’s mind was racing. There was no way he could explain the situation to Wallace in time. And they needed to get out! Soon all the decks would be flooded with panicking passengers who wanted to get into the lifeboats and there would be no way to get out!

Gromit had no idea what to do! And yet was sure that there was something he was forgetting. Something he had seen on his way to find Wallace, something he had heard...

The he got it!

A plane! There was a plane!!

Gromit grabbed Wallace by the sleeve of his jacket and began to drag him away.

“Slow down, boy! Whatever got into you?There’s time to go see the garage later! Now, I wouldn’t say no to a nice bit of cheddar!”

Gromit was only half-listening. As they went on, he could smell more and more motor oil in the air and that meant that they had to be close. Then they stood in the door and Gromit had never seen a more beautiful sight than the small red airplane.

“I say, Gromit!” Wallace said. He didn’t sound happy at all. “That is quite enough!”

Gromit wanted to say:

“Look, Wallace, this ship is about to sink and we need to get this plane to fly if we don’t want to sink with it. So stop thinking about cheese, for pity’s sake, get in and help me fly it!”

But he couldn’t manage a single sound. So he simply tugged on Wallace’s sleeve again and went to sit in the plane.

Thankfully, Wallace followed. Gromit didn’t care much that he was grumbling the whole time me.

“This is quite unacceptable, Gromit!” and “Don’t you think we won’t talk about this when we get home, pal!” and “Really, Gromit?! I simply wanted a bite of something cheesy for the road!”

However, even as he was grumbling, Wallace was also working. And soon enough, the plane’s engine roared. Gromit grabbed a hold of the controls and waited for Wallace to get it.

“Now Gromit-chap, be reasonable,” said Wallace as he was buckling his seat-belt. “Surely, there’s time for a bit of Gouda-aaaaah!”

But there wasn’t time for any kind of cheese, so Gromit stomped on the accelerator and they were out of the garage, speeding across the deck.

The sooner they got away from the awful ship, the better, in Gromit’s opinion.

 

**

Richard and Eddie had helped Mouse with the air compressor and now they were standing in the middle of a mountain of twenty large inflatable lifeboats.

Richard had thought that making the lifeboats would make him feel safer and better about the whole situation. But the truth was, that he felt just as scared and awful as before!

Sure, it was pretty cool, when the Captain HIMSELF came to see the boats and started to thank whoever made them for saving the lives of the passengers.

But that was until Richard realised that no matter how loud he shouted or how much he waved his arms at him, the Captain couldn’t see him.

In fact, none of the crew or passengers could see any of them. Not even Eddie’s magical mouse!

So Richard and Eddie had come up with a perfect plan how to save the lives of the passengers of Titanic, but it looked like their plan wouldn’t be enough to save them. And Richard was really scared.

Because they had been trying to get on one of those lifeboats very hard, but they simply COULDN’T. There was always someone in their way and even if Richard was as invisible as a ghost to them, he wasn’t a ghost. And he couldn’t touch them or pass through.

Richard was holding Eddies hand. He hadn’t done that since he was in kindergarden. But they couldn’t risk getting separated and it did make him feel a little better. Even if

Eddie seemed to be completely out of his senses. He kept muttering something to his Mouse.

WHERE WAS GROMIT WHEN THEY NEEDED HIM THE MOST?!

That was another thing that was bothered Richard. How could their friend just abandon them like that?!

But suddenly, Richard saw him. AND Walace! AND in an airplane, too!

He started to laugh, he was so happy!

There was Wallace and Gromit and they were piloting an airplane! They were all going to be alright!

“Eddie! Eddie, look!” he tugged on Eddie’s hand and shouted in his ear. But Eddie couldn’t see them!

“Eddie! Look! It’s Wallace and Gromit and they’re flying a plane!”

Because that’s exactly what they were doing. They had used the lower deck as a runway and now they were taking off in their little red airplane.

But could they see them?

Sure Gromit would see them and come back for them!

But the plane took off and seemed to be getting farther and farther away and Richard almost lost all hope again.

“HEEELP!” he shouted. Eddie joined him.

“HELP! GROOOOMIT! HEEEEELP!” they were both screaming. But it looked like Gromit didn’t hear them. He was still flying away.

Richard grabbed at his hair in frustration.

How could this be possible?! That wasn’t right! It wasn’t FAIR!!! They had saved everyone!

But life isn’t fair. He had read that in some clever book some years ago. He had never believed it, though. Not until now.

And then suddenly, he was deaf.

He had to be. There was simply no way, that his hearing could survive after witnessing that godawful noise of despair Eddie’s mouse just made. It was louder than any siren could ever be.

And then Richard saw the little red plane turn around.

He could see Gromit in the front seat, waving a long rope like a lasso at them. Richard didn’t know where Gromit got his pilot cap or glasses or scarf from. But he really like the way the scarf flapped in the wind as the little red plane got closer and closer.

Richard grabbed Eddie’s hand tighter, right before he felt the lasso tighten around him and Eddie.

He woke up smiling.

\--------------------------------------------------THE END ? -----------------------------------------------------


	3. Eddie & Gromit: In the North Atlantic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A responsible and sensitive young boy wakes up to find both himself and his little friend Mousie on the ship Titanic. He's smart, but he's never been the best at anything. 
> 
> So, how can he take care of them both and save everyone at the same time?

“Uh-oh,” thought Gromit when his paws hit a hardwood floor and his nose smelled the ocean. In his bedroom, where he went to sleep last night, there was nice soft carpet and no salt or fish for miles around. 

But Gromit wasn’t in his room any more. He could see that now. His eyes adjusted to the dark and his four legs to the strange swaying of the floor and suddenly he knew where he was. 

On the deck of a ship! 

And not just any old ship! This one was surely almost 900 feet long and there were four ginormous funnels sticking up and out into the starry sky from the highest deck. And boy, was it beautiful! 

“Oh no,” said a voice from next to him. 

Gromit was startled and growled a little. He had thought he was alone. 

And wasn’t this strange? Where was Wallace? Usually they went on adventures together. 

“No, no, no, no! This is not good,” continued the voice. It sounded young. Gromit peered into the darkness. 

There was a boy sitting on the deck just a few feet away from him. He looked unhappy and a little panicked. 

“What’s the matter with him?” thought Gromit. He decided to find out. He got up slowly. He didn’t want to spook the boy.

“This is not good. This is very bad. Very, very bad!” repeated the boy while looking around. Suddenly, he saw Gromit. 

“Gromit?! Is that you?!” he shouted. Then he jumped to his feet, rushed to the dog and hugged him. “I’m so happy to see you! Things can’t be that bad if you are here!”

Gromit was very surprised. He didn’t know the boy at all and he had no idea that things were bad. 

“Where’s Wallace? Is he coming soon?” asked the boy when they stopped hugging. Gromit shrugged his shoulders. 

He had no idea how to say: “I don’t know who you are, where we are, how we got here or where my best friend is and why he isn’t here with me.” 

“I’m Richard,” said the boy. Then he held out his hand.

**

“Eddie, Eddie, EDDIEEE!”

Eddie waved his hand at the annoying voice. He was trying to sleep! What part of: “at night Eddie sleeps and Mouse is quiet, or Eddie gets very angry” did she not understand? 

Why did she always have be so annoying and all squeaky when he wanted to rest?!

Well, that’s what he got for drawing a mouse and then wanting to be friends with his own picture. 

Mum always said: “Be careful what you wish for, Eddie.” And now Eddie knew why. Sometimes you got your wish, sometimes they came true. But it was never in the way you expected. Like right now, for example.

“EDDIEEEEE, WAKE UP!” came the loudest squeak.

Eddie woke up and growled at Mouse: 

“I’m trying to sleep!” 

“Eddie, I’m scared,” Mouse squeaked and Eddie saw that she was telling the truth. She looked absolutely terrified. 

“You’re always scared of something!” he said, angrily. He was still very annoyed that she woke him up and also began to worry a little. Mouse wasn’t usually this unreasonable.

“Eddie, I don’t know where we are!” said Mouse. It looked like she would begin to cry very soon. Eddie sighed.

“Where would we be, you silly mouse? We’re home, of cour-” 

But Eddie didn’t finish his sentence. Because as he was answering Mouse, he got a chance to look around. And there was no “of course” about them being home.

They weren’t home.

“WHERE ARE WE?!” Eddie jumped to his feet and screamed. “We aren’t in my bedroom, Mouse! Why aren’t we in my bedroom?”

Mouse began to cry.

“I don’t know, Eddie. That’s why I woke you up,” she sobbed.

But Eddie didn’t have time for her crying. (Also, he wanted to cry a little himself.)

“Stop your bawling,” he told her briskly. “Only babies cry. Are you a baby!?” 

That’s what his Dad sometimes said.

“No,” Mouse admitted, with tears in her eyes. “But I am scared and just a small mouse.”

And Eddie had to admit that Mouse was right. 

She was just a small mouse and she was scared. Why, he was a 9-year-old boy, not at all a baby, and he was scared, too! 

“It’s going to be alright, Mousie.” He sat down next to her and she jumped into his outstretched palm. 

“I’m going to take care of us, don’t worry,” Eddie promised. But it felt like a lie. He had no idea how he was going to do it. 

And it seemed that Mouse knew it, too. She gave him a long, searching look and then opened her mouth and Eddie knew that her next squeak would be particularly piercing.

He pulled away and covered his right ear with his free hand.

“HEEEEEELP!” Mouse screeched.

**

“...on the ship Titanic... hit an iceberg... 24 kn, that’s 44 km/h... too fast” 

Gromit felt like his head was spinning. The boy, Richard, talked faster than Wallace when he forgot to buy crackers in the shop. 

And then...

“HEEEELP!” came a piercing shriek.

“What was that?” Richard asked.

Gromit’s head shot up when he heard it. His first instinct was to shake his head at Wallace’s dramatics over needing “Assistance” again, but then he remembered that Wallace  
wasn’t there.

Someone else was calling for help! 

Gromit was sprinting towards the sound before he knew that he had begun with Richard right behind him, his little face all white with worry. 

Then they both stopped as suddenly as they took off. Because Gromit saw something that made his nose crinkle up in confusion. 

An another boy? 

And a small creature , like a mouse? But one like he had never seen before. But which of them had called for help?

“What the bloody hell is your problem?! Would you just be quiet, Mouse!?” the boy shouted at the animal in his hand. 

Gromit frowned. He didn’t like mice very much, but he also didn’t like children who were mean to animals.

“Eddie?” came from his right. Richard’s eyes lit up when he looked at the boy. “What are you doing here?”

“Richie?” said the mean boy, looking suddenly much less mean. “Is that you?”

“That’s Richie!” squeaked the mouse and Gromit pressed his long dog ears close to his head. 

She was very loud. 

So loud that Richard noticed her, his mouth dropped open and he pointed at her.

**

Eddie couldn’t believe it when (after Mouse nearly deafened him) a huge dog came sprinting from around the corner. 

And he seriously began to doubt his senses when suddenly he saw Richie, his best friend, standing right in front of him.

Then, of course, Mouse had to go and be loud and get discovered by Richie. 

This was something Eddie had always been afraid of. People, especially Richie, finding out about Mouse and laughing at them. 

But Richie didn’t laugh.

Instead, he explained where they were. And then they all sat there on the deck of a ship that Richie said was RMS Titanic and none of them was laughing. 

There was Richie with his face pale like chalk, Gromit (who Richie introduced and Eddie recognised), Mouse who sat shivering in his palm and Eddie, who was beginning to feel  
not so much like a big boy, but more like a little baby who really wanted to cry. 

Because if this was the Titanic...? Well, everyone knew what happened with that ship. 

“What are we going to do, Eddie?” asked Mouse. She began to cry again some time ago.

“I don’t know, Mousie,” he answered. 

He tried to calm his stomach. Eddie remembered the pictures Richie had shown him. Of the ship broken in two and sinking. He had never been more scared in his life. 

“How did we get here, Eddie?” sobbed Mouse and again Eddie said: 

“I don’t know, Mousie.” 

“Who are you talking to?” asked Richie suddenly. 

Five minutes ago, Eddie would have been very angry at Mouse and himself. People weren’t supposed to know about Mouse, let alone that he could talk to her. Now, he just pointed to the small creature in his hand and said:

“Mouse.”

**

 

“Where is Wallace?” Gromit thought. They were all just sitting there, not doing anything after the first boy, Richard, told his story about what was waiting for them in the near future.. 

Wallace would know what to do and he simply had to be around somewhere! Gromit was just on the verge of going to find him, when one of the boys, Richard, stood up and said:

“We need a plan!”

So Gromit sat down again. Because whenever Wallace said this, the next word that followed was usually-

“Gromit?” said Richard and Gromit sighed when he saw that they were all looking at him. 

Gromit looked back at them and wished he could say: 

“What are you looking at me for? I’m a dog! Sure, I have my talents: I can rescue sheep, prevent penguin crime, build a spaceship, pilot a plane, bake bread and grow excellent vegetables, but I have never traveled back in time before! I am only a dog!” 

So he just shrugged his shoulders, nervously pulled on the bungee rope around his waist and then in a fit of clarity pointed at the small boats that sat in a row by the railing. 

“Gromit, you are a genius!” said Eddie excitedly. Richard had jumped to his feet and was nodding.

“I’m starting to like you, human puppies,” thought Gromit, pleased.

“Yes, you are! That’s it exactly. Right now, there are only 20 lifeboats on the ship. We just need to make more!” Richard shouted and Gromit raised his ears and eyebrows. 

That’s not what he had in mind at all.

“But how?” asked Mouse as if she could read his mind. 

How, indeed...

**  
Eddie thought that they were going to be alright. And then Gromit had simply got up and ran away from them! 

Eddie couldn’t believe it. How could he just leave them like that? Especially after acting like he knew how to help them make those lifeboats Richie had talked about!? 

“Is he coming back?” asked Mouse and Eddie could hear more tears in her voice. He gave her an angry look. Couldn’t she do anything useful for a change?! 

“I don’t know, if he’s coming back,” he said, but then he noticed Richie shaking his head at them and laughing. 

“Of course, he is, silly!” Richie shouted. “Didn’t you notice his bungee?”

Eddie hadn’t noticed it. Truth to be told, he wasn’t sure what a bungee actually was.

“The rope! Didn’t you notice the rope on his belt?”Richie gloated.

“It was dark, Richie!” Eddie answered, angrily. Even if Richie was smarter, he wasn’t stupid!

“Alright, alright,” said Richie. “Well, do you remember Close Shave, the movie with the sheep?” 

Eddie smiled at the memory of their dog-friend flying a sidecar/plane through multiple doors right up to the evil robot-dog. 

“Wallace and Gromit were using the bungee to wash windows. It’s a very useful thing! I bet he has a plan!”

Eddie hoped that Richie was right. He wanted to go home, back to his bed. It was a cold night and his feet were freezing. 

He didn’t have any socks or shoes on.

**  
Gromit had got an idea when he took off and sprinted away from their small group of time travellers. He had no clue how it happened that he had his bungee with him (he never wore it to bed), but he wasn’t about to look this particular gift-horse in the mouth.

Instead, he put his nose to the floor and sniffed. And then he ran. And then he smelled the air. And then he sniffed at the floor again. 

He was looking for something. 

He had an idea that just might work!

He and Wallace had built a spaceship with junk they’d found in their cellar and there were lots of things you could use to make a boat to be found on a ship. 

Then he got it! The sweet smell of onions caramelizing in simmering oil. His stomach growled at him, but Gromit gave it a disapproving glare.

If he could, he would bark in excitement. 

Gromit untied the bungee from around his waist and made a clever knot around one of the rails. 

Then he jumped. 

**  
There was a loud bang and then suddenly Richie was screaming and Eddie jumped a couple of feet into the air. He could hear Mouse whimpering somewhere on the floor, she fell from his grasp when he started. 

“What’s wrong?!” he shouted. “What happened?!” But Richie wasn’t answering.

Eddie got more and more worried. He seemed to be crying, too!

Then Mouse suddenly laughed and started to run away and Richie was shouting at him and Eddie felt like he didn’t understand anything anymore. 

“Just go away, you stupid!” Richie shouted, so Eddie went.

Eddie decided to run after Mouse instead of staying with his mean friend.

“Mouse? Mouse! Where are you?” he shouted.

“Here!” Mouse answered. She sounded- happy?! “Come here, Eddie! Come see what Gromit found!”

So Eddie went. 

There was a pile of the strangest junk right next to the rails, an enormous bundle of some strange fabric, about a hundred bottles with yellow liquid and lots and lots of balls of string. Gromit was standing right next to it, looking proud, and Mouse was dancing around it all, chattering away about how clever Gromit was. Suddenly, she turned to him.

“Eddie, call for Richie!” she said. In a voice that Eddie had never heard her use before. It wasn’t weepy or annoying. It was sharp. A bit like Mum when she wanted him to go do his homework.

It surprised him so much that he did what she said without question.

“Richie! Come here, Richie!”

Eddie was even more confused when Richie suddenly appeared from behind him, shouted a bit about Gromit being a genius and then started to laugh like a madman.

“Right, I’ve got a plan,” he said at last when he stopped laughing.

“Really?” Eddie asked. He didn’t see how Richie could have any kind of a plan. He was crying only a minute before. 

“Yes, I do!” Richie answered and then waved his arms excitedly and Eddie worried that maybe his best friend had gone crazy. “We need to pour oil on the fabric. That will make it waterproof.” 

Gromit was nodding but it still wasn’t making and sense to Eddie. 

“Then we need to fold it a couple of times and draw a plan of a lifeboat.”

“Just one plan?” Eddie asked. It seemed to him that they needed more than just one extra lifeboat.

“Of course!” Richie answered as though he had been making sense all along.

“Okay?” said Eddie and Richie rolled his eyes. Eddie hated it when he did that.

“We won’t need to draw more than one if we fold the fabric and cut it right!” 

And suddenly, Eddie saw that Richie was right. They did a similar thing at school with paper! 

“That’s brilliant! I can draw the plan! I draw better than you,” Eddie shouted excitedly. But Richie frowned. 

“I draw just as well!” he argued and stomped his foot. 

And that simply wasn’t true! Eddie knew that Richie might be smarter than him in lots of ways and better than him at lots of things, but drawing was the one thing where HE  
excelled! 

“I will draw the plan!” he said angrily. “You can cut the fabric after.”

“No, I will draw the plan! I’m better than you!”

Eddie saw red. 

“You are so not!” he shouted. “You are just a stupid cry-baby!” 

Eddie knew he shouldn’t have said it as soon as the words left his mouth. He himself had been scared and cried a little too. But Richie just made him so angry! 

Richie’s face went white again.

“And you are just a-”

“You are both being stupid!” Mouse screamed. She sounded so much like Mum again, that Eddie’s whole face went red with shame. “You need to stop arguing and we need to get to work. We are on a ship that’s about to sink, in case you forgot!”

“I’m sorry, Richie,” Eddie said as soon as Mouse paused to take a breath. “That was really nasty.” 

Richie nodded. He still looked a bit angry, though.

“Do you really want to draw the plan?” Eddie asked. Richie shook his head.

“Nah, you do it,” he said. “I’ll go and ask Gromit about finding us some scissors.”

And so they began. 

Gromit helped them spread the fabric, oil it and fold it, Mouse sat right on Eddie’s shoulder as he drew the outline of a lifeboat and wasn’t annoying for once, but actually gave helpful advice. Then Richie and Gromit took out their scissors and began to cut away at the fabric. 

And then suddenly they were done and in front of them there was a pile of forty new lifeboats waiting to be... sewn!?

“Uh-oh,” said Richie. 

Eddie nodded. He knew that they had forgotten something important. 

“What are we going to do, Eddie?” asked Richie. He was trying to hide it, but Eddie could hear the tears in his voice. “Fabric doesn’t float on water. Even when it’s waterproof.” 

Eddie nodded again. If he spoke aloud, he would start crying just like Richie had done before. 

“Let’s get to the sewing, shall we?” said Mouse and hopped down from his shoulder. Eddie couldn’t believe it.

“You know how to sew?” he asked. Richie’s mouth opened in surprise when Mouse suddenly drew out something that looked like a tiny mouse-sword from her belt. 

“Of course!” she said. “Did you forget that you gave me this when you drew me?” 

Eddie nodded. He had forgotten about it. 

“I didn’t know if it was a sword or a needle and couldn’t decide. So I decided not to decide and use it however I wanted,” Mouse announced, jumped into the many balls of string and grabbed a hold of one. Eddie shook his head. 

Where had the timid, annoying creature that was his little Mouse gone, and who was this strange stranger?!

“Does she know how to sew?” Richie asked. Eddie shrugged his shoulders. 

“I guess...” he said. 

Then Mouse took hold of two of their lifeboat fabric shapes and started to jump around. She was so fast that sometimes Eddie couldn’t even see her move. She was sewing.

And suddenly there was one lifeboat, then two, three, six, ten, fifteen, eighteen lifeboats! All finished!

“Do you have magic?” Eddie heard himself ask and Mouse stopped what she was doing and rolled her eyes at him. 

“That’s kind of a stupid question, don’t you think? You once drew me on a piece of paper and now here I am,” she smiled at him with her little mouse mouth and her whiskers twitched. Then she added cheekily: “So, what do you think?”

“Does she have magic?” Richie asked and again Eddie could only shrug and say: “

“I guess so?” 

Eddie could see Richie opening his mouth to ask more questions. They never came though. Because that’s when it happened. 

The iceberg.

Eddie had tried not to think about this moment. In fact, he had hoped that this was all just a strange dream and any minute now he would wake up at home in his bed with Mouse squeaking at him from the nightstand. 

But this didn’t feel like a dream. The whole ship shook and there was a very strange deep thunder coming from somewhere deep, deep down and then- 

Nothing. Silence. 

“Richie?” he asked. His voice didn’t sound like his voice at all. He could feel himself shaking and saw that Richie was shaking too.

“We’re going to be fine, right?” Eddie asked no one in particular. 

“Of course, we’re going to be alright!” Mouse said. She was sewing again. “You promised that you’d take care of us when I was scared before, or don’t you remember?”  
Eddie could only nod. But he wasn’t sure he could keep that promise. 

“Uh-huh,” he said and Mouse took it as an agreement because she gave him a blinding smile and said:

“Well, then go ask Gromit about the air compressor he’d promised me.” 

Eddie once again felt like he didn’t understand anything anymore.

“What’s an air compressor?” he asked. Mouse shot him an annoyed look but it was Richie who answered:

“That’s something you use to pump air into mattresses and tires and stuff. Why?”

“Mouse says we need it and should ask Gromit for it,” said Eddie.

And that’s when Eddie looked around and with dread settling around the pit of his stomach realised one thing they had overlooked. 

Neither Gromit, nor his bungee were with them anymore. 

“Oh, never mind, boys. The air compressor’s under here!” Mouse squeaked but neither of them heard her.

“Where’s Gromit?!” they shouted.

**  
Once Gromit saw that the strange Mouse knew what she was doing, he untied his bungee and quietly padded away. 

He liked the two boys well enough, but he simply had to go and look for Wallace! If what Richard said was correct, Wallace could be on some other deck of this doomed ship,  
trying to find him. And he had no idea! 

Gromit couldn’t just leave him to his fate! 

He was a good dog! 

He raised his nose in the air and tried to catch Wallace’s scent. That strange blend of really smelly cheese, soap and motor oil.

Nothing. 

He jumped over the railings and climbed to the lower deck. There he walked and sniffed and walked and sniffed and walked and sniffed till he felt his paws hurt. 

Then he sat down and put his long ears over his eyes. 

It was hopeless. 

How could he find his one friend on such an enormous ship?

It was hopeless.

There would be no more “Gromit, old chum, I need assistance!”, no more “Cheese, Gromit!”, no more “This is the day, Gromit! Totty’s invited me to tea, old pal!”, no more  
“Groooomiiit!”

Gromit could feel tears stinging in his eyes. For a moment it felt almost as though he had really heard Wallace call his name. He shook his head and laughed sadly.

“Groooomit!” 

But there it was again!

Gromit raised his head and slowly looked around. He couldn’t see anyone.

“Gromit?” And there it was again! 

“Where are you, old pal?” 

And suddenly, as if someone had turned on a switch in his brain, suddenly Gromit knew exactly where Wallace was. He could smell the motor oil, the soap and smelly cheese! 

Gromit got to his feet and ran faster than he had ever run in his life.

“Oh, whatever is the matter with you, Gromit?” Wallace chuckled when Gromit bounded over to him and hugged him. 

Then he patted him on the head and Gromit didn’t even mind that. 

“Wherever did you wander off to? I’ve been looking for you all over. Do you know where we are, by any chance? I have to tell you, Gromit, I had half a mind to stop looking for you! I found a cracking room here. Smashing garage, I’m telling you! There are cars and a plane and-”

Grrrrrrrrooooaaaaaawl!

Gromit never got to hear the whole list. 

That’s when it happened and Gromit knew that the boy, Richard, was telling the truth. 

“Oh, what do you think that was, Gromit?” Wallace chuckled uneasily. 

For a long while, there was silence and then suddenly, first like a small trickle of water, then like the roar of a rushing river, human voices started to appear out of the darkness and Gromit had to cover his sensitive ears with his paws. 

Such a clamor!

“Quite a row that, huh, Gromit?!” said Wallace again. 

Gromit’s mind was racing. There was no way he could explain the situation to Wallace in time. And they needed to get out! Soon all the decks would be flooded with panicking passengers who wanted to get into the lifeboats and there would be no way to get out!

Gromit had no idea what to do! And yet was sure that there was something he was forgetting. Something he had seen on his way to find Wallace, something he had heard...

The he got it! 

A plane! There was a plane!! 

Gromit grabbed Wallace by the sleeve of his jacket and began to drag him away. 

“Slow down, boy! Whatever got into you?There’s time to go see the garage later! Now, I wouldn’t say no to a nice bit of cheddar!” 

Gromit was only half-listening. As they went on, he could smell more and more motor oil in the air and that meant that they had to be close. But then they were standing in the door and Gromit had never seen a more beautiful sight than that one small red airplane.

“I say, Gromit!” Wallace said. He didn’t sound happy at all. “That is quite enough!”

Gromit wanted to say: 

“Look, Wallace, this ship is about to sink and we need to get this plane to fly if we don’t want to sink with it. So stop thinking about cheese, for pity’s sake, get in and help me fly it!” 

But he couldn’t manage a single sound. So he simply tugged on Wallace’s sleeve again and went to sit in the plane. 

Thankfully, Wallace followed. Gromit didn’t care much that he was grumbling the whole time. 

“This is quite unacceptable, Gromit!” and “Don’t you think we won’t talk about this when we get home, pal!” and “Really, Gromit?! I simply wanted a bite of something cheesy for the road!”

However, even as he was grumbling, Wallace was also working. And soon enough, the plane’s engine roared to life. 

Gromit grabbed a hold of the controls and waited for Wallace to get it.

“Now Gromit-chap, be reasonable,” said Wallace as he was buckling his seat-belt. “Surely, there’s time for a bit of Gouda-aaaaah!”

But there wasn’t time for any kind of cheese, so Gromit stomped on the accelerator and they were out of the garage, speeding across the deck. 

The sooner they got away from the awful ship, the better, in Gromit’s opinion.

**  
Eddie and Richie had helped Mouse with the air compressor and now they were standing in the middle of a mountain of twenty large inflatable lifeboats. 

Eddie thought that he would feel less scared once they had made them, but the truth was that they didn’t help him feel better at all. 

True, he had liked it when the Captain of Titanic himself came to have a look at them, shook his head and wondered where they’d come from. 

His happiness abated the moment he had realised that no matter how much he or Richie shouted or Mouse squeaked, neither the Captain nor any of his officers could hear  
them. 

They couldn’t see them either.

“What are we going to do?” asked Mouse, worriedly. And before, Eddie thought that he would feel better if she behaved again like the scared Mouse he knew. He didn’t. 

“We need to get on one of those boats, Mousie,” he said.

“But how?” asked Richie. Eddie saw that he was still sad about Gromit running away and leaving them.

“They can’t see us, they can’t stop us, right?” Eddie said, trying to sound brave.

That, however, was easier said than done. 

They kept trying to sneak around the sailors and passengers who started to flood the deck, but they couldn’t. There was always someone blocking their way and pushing in front of them. 

Eddie wanted to shout and scream at the strangely-dressed people that they had made them their lifeboats and that what they were doing just wasn’t fair. But he knew they couldn’t hear him, so he didn’t bother. 

Richie was holding his hand and together they were trying to run through and around the crowd.

“Eddie,” he could hear Mouse trying to say something. 

“Eddie!”

If he got around just this one sailor!

“EDDIE!” Eddie started and the sailor moved and the chance was gone.

“What?! What is it?!” he snapped at Mouse.

“What does Mum always say?” Mouse asked him. She seemed like neither the strange magical seamstress nor the scared cry-baby from before. Now she was something in between. 

It calmed Eddie a little. 

“I don’t know, Mousie,” Eddie answered, thinking of Mum made him want to cry a little. “Mum says a lot of things.”

“Well, she says that the night is always darkest right before the dawn,” said Mouse and smiled at him. 

“Night is always darkest right before the dawn?” Eddie remember his Mum saying this when we had bad dreams when he was little, but was never sure about what it meant.

“Eddie, EDDIE! LOOK!” Suddenly, Richie was shaking him, shouting in his ear and pointing over the rails down below.

Eddie didn’t want to look down and see the cold water. 

“It’s Gromit, Eddie!” Richie screamed. “It’s Wallace and Gromit and they’re in a plane!” 

And so Eddie looked down and saw their dog-friend with his human-friend in a small red airplane. 

Gromit could hear them, couldn’t he?! Better than anyone, he was a dog after all! 

“GROOOMIIIT!” he roared and he didn’t even care that Richie was screaming the name along with him right into his ear.

For a moment it seemed like the piloting dog heard them, but he never turned around. Eddie felt tears stinging in his eyes again.

“GROOOOOOOMIIIIIIT!” Eddie tried to scream even louder. 

This was their one chance! Gromit couldn’t just fly away and leave them there! 

And then, from the corner of his eye, Eddie saw Mouse opening her mouth. He smiled and covered his ears. 

“HEEEEEEEEEEELP!” Mousie shrieked, louder than any siren. 

And then Eddie saw the little red plane take off from the deck and fly for a short while before turning back. 

He could see Gromit in the front seat, waving a long rope like a lasso at them. Eddie didn’t know where Gromit got his pilot cap or glasses or scarf from. But he really like the  
way the scarf flapped in the wind as the little red plane got closer and closer. 

Eddie grabbed Mouse with both hands, right before he felt the lasso tighten around him and Richie. 

He woke up smiling. 

 

\--------------------------------------------------THE END ? -----------------------------------------------------


	4. Gromit & Crazy Humans: In the North Atlantic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A long-suffering dog-inventor possessing a serious green thumb, the skills to bake bread, pilot a plane, build a spaceship and prevent penguin crime travels back in time. And what do you think? He saves everyone!

“Uh-oh,” thought Gromit when his paws hit a hardwood floor and his nose smelled the ocean. In his bedroom, where he went to sleep last night, there was a nice soft carpet and no salt or fish for miles around. 

But Gromit wasn’t in his room any more. He could see that now. His eyes adjusted to the dark and his four legs to the strange swaying of the floor and suddenly he knew where he was. 

On a deck of a ship! 

And not just any old ship! This one was surely almost 900 feet long and there were four ginormous funnels sticking up and out into the sky from the highest deck. And it was beautiful! 

“Oh no,” said a voice from next to him. 

Gromit was startled and growled a little. He thought he was alone. And wasn’t this strange? Where was Wallace? Usually they went on adventures together. 

“No, no, no, no, this is not good,” continued the voice. It sounded young. Gromit peered into the darkness. 

There was a boy sitting on the deck just a few feet away from him. He looked unhappy and a little panicked. 

“What’s the matter with him?” thought Gromit. He decided to find out. He got up slowly. He didn’t want to spook the boy.

“This is not good, this is very bad. Very, very bad!” repeated the boy while looking around. Suddenly, he saw Gromit. 

“Gromit?! Is that you?!” he shouted. Then he jumped to his feet, rushed to the dog and hugged him. “I’m so happy to see you! Things can’t be that bad if you are here!”

Gromit was very surprised. He didn’t know the boy at all and he had no idea that things were bad. 

“Where’s Wallace? Is he coming soon?” asked the boy when they stopped hugging. Gromit shrugged his shoulders. 

He had no idea how to say: “I don’t know who you are, where we are, how we got here or where my best friend is and why he isn’t here with me.” 

**

...on the ship Titanic... hit an iceberg... 24 kn, that’s 44 km/h... too fast” 

Gromit felt like his head was spinning. The boy, Richard, talked faster than Wallace when he forgot to buy crackers in the shop and they were out. 

And then...

“HEEEELP!” came a piercing shriek.

“What was that?” Richard asked.

Gromit’s head shot up when he heard it. His first instinct was to shake his head at Wallace’s dramatics over needing “Assistance” again, but then he remembered that Wallace   
wasn’t there.

Someone else was calling for help! 

Gromit was sprinting towards the sound before he knew that he began. Richard ran right behind him, his little face all white with worry. 

What he saw, made his nose crinkle up in confusion. 

An another boy. And a small creature , a mouse, but one like he had never seen before. But which of them called for help?

“What the bloody hell is your problem?! Would you just be quiet, Mouse!?” the boy shouted at the animal in his hand. 

Gromit growled. He didn’t like mice very much, but he also didn’t like children who were mean to animals.

“Eddie?” came from his right. Richard’s eyes lit up when he looked at the boy. “What are you doing here?”

“Richie?” said the mean boy, looking suddenly much less mean. “Is that you?”

“That’s Richie!” squeaked the mouse and Gromit pressed his long dog ears close to his head. She was very loud. 

So loud that Richard noticed her, his mouth dropped open and he pointed at her.

 

**

“Where is Wallace?” Gromit thought. They were all just sitting there, not doing anything after the first boy, Richard, told his story about what was waiting for them in the near future.. 

Wallace would know what to do and he simply had to be around somewhere! Gromit was just on the verge of going to find him, when one of the boys, Richard, stood up and said:

“We need a plan!”

So Gromit sat down again. Whenever Wallace said this, the next word that followed was usually-

“Gromit?” said Richard and Gromit sighed when he saw that they were all looking at him. 

Gromit looked back at them and wished he could say: 

“What are you looking at me for? I’m a dog! Sure, I have my talents: I can rescue sheep, prevent penguin crime, build a spaceship, pilot a plane, bake bread and grow excellent vegetables, but I have never traveled back in time before! I am only a dog!” 

So he just shrugged his shoulders, nervously pulled on the bungee rope around his waist and then in a fit of clarity pointed at the small boats that sat in a row by the railing. 

“Gromit, you are a genius!” said Eddie excitedly. Richard had jumped to his feet and was nodding.

“I’m starting to like you, human puppies,” thought Gromit, pleased.

“Yes, you are! That’s it exactly. Right now, there are only 20 lifeboats on the ship. We just need to make more!” Richard shouted and Gromit raised his ears and eyebrows. 

That’s not what he had in mind at all.

“But how?” asked Mouse as if she could read his mind. 

How, indeed...

**  
Gromit had indeed got an idea when he took off and sprinted away from their small group of time travelers. He had no idea how it happened that he had his bungee with him (he never wore it to bed), but he wasn’t about to look this particular horse in the mouth.

Instead, he put his nose to the floor and sniffed. And then he ran. And then he smelled the air. And then he sniffed at the floor again. 

He was looking for something. 

He had an idea that just might work!

He and Wallace built a spaceship with junk they found in their cellar and there were lots of things you could use to make a boat to be found on a ship. 

Then he got it, then he smelled it! The sweet scent of onions caramelizing in shimmering oil. His stomach growled at him, but Gromit gave it a disapproving glare.

If he could, he would bark in excitement. 

Gromit untied the bungee from around his waist and made a clever knot around one of the rails. 

Then he jumped. 

**  
Once Gromit saw that the strange Mouse knew what she was doing, he untied his bungee and quietly padded away. 

He liked the two boys well enough, but he simply had to go and look for Wallace! If what Richard said was correct, Wallace could be on some other deck of this doomed ship, trying to find him. And he had no idea! 

Gromit couldn’t just leave him to his fate! 

He was a good dog! 

He raised his nose in the air and tried to catch Wallace’s scent. That strange blend of really smelly cheese, soap and motor oil.

Nothing. 

He jumped over the railings and climbed to the lower deck. There he walked and sniffed and walked and sniffed and walked and sniffed till he felt his paws hurt. 

Then he sat down and put his long ears over his eyes. 

It was hopeless. 

How could he find his one friend on such an enormous ship?

It was hopeless.

There would be no more “Gromit, old chum, I need assistance!”, no more “Cheese, Gromit!”, no more “This is the day, Gromit! Totty’s invited me to tea, old pal!”, no more 

“Groooomiiit!”

Gromit could feel tears stinging in his eyes. For a moment it felt almost as though he had really heard Wallace call his name. He shook his head and laughed sadly.

“Groooomit!” 

But there it was again!

Gromit raised his head and slowly looked around. He couldn’t see anyone.

“Gromit?” And there it was again! 

“Where are you, old pal?” 

And suddenly, as if someone turned on a switch in his brain, suddenly Gromit knew exactly where Wallace was. He could smell the motor oil, the soap and smelly cheese! 

Gromit got to his feet and ran faster than he had ever run in his life.

“Oh, whatever is the matter with you, Gromit?” Wallace chuckled when Gromit bounded over to him and hugged him. Then he petted him on the head and Gromit didn’t even mind that. “Wherever did you wander off to? I’ve been looking for you all over. Do you know where we are, by any chance? I have to tell you, Gromit, I had half a mind to stop looking for you! I found a cracking room here. Smashing, I tell you! There are cars and a plane and-”

Grrrrrrrrooooaaaaaawl!

Gromit never got to hear the whole list. 

That’s when it happened and Gromit knew that the boy, Richard, was telling the truth. 

“Oh, what do you that was, Gromit?” Wallace chuckled uneasily. 

For a long while, there was silence for a while and then an suddenly, first like a small trickle of water, then like the roar of a rushing river, human voices started to appear out of the darkness and Gromit had to cover his sensitive ears with his paws. 

Such an clamor!

“Quite a row that, huh, Gromit!” said Wallace again. 

Gromit’s mind was racing. There was no way he could explain the situation to Wallace in time. And they needed to get out! Soon all the decks would be flooded with panicking passengers who wanted to get into the lifeboats and there would be no way to get out!

Gromit had no idea what to do! And yet was sure that there was something he was forgetting. Something he had seen on his way to find Wallace, something he had heard...

Then he got it! 

A plane! There was a plane!! 

Gromit grabbed Wallace by the sleeve of his jacket and began to drag him away. 

“Slow down, boy! Whatever got into you?There’s time to go see the garage later! Now, I wouldn’t say no to a nice bit of cheddar!” 

Gromit was only half-listening. As they went on, he could smell more and more motor oil in the air and that meant that they had to be close. Then they stood in the door and 

Gromit had never seen a more beautiful sight than the small red airplane.

“I say, Gromit!” Wallace said. He didn’t sound happy at all. “That is quite enough!”

Gromit wanted to say: 

“Look, Wallace, this ship is about to sink and we need to get this plane to fly if we don’t want to sink with it. So stop thinking about cheese, for pity’s sake, get in and help me fly   
it!” 

But he couldn’t manage a single sound. So he simply tugged on Wallace’s sleeve again and went to sit in the plane. 

Thankfully, Wallace followed. Gromit didn’t care much that he was grumbling the whole time me. 

“This is quite unacceptable, Gromit!” and “Don’t you think we won’t talk about this when we get home, pal!” and “Really, Gromit?! I simply wanted a bite of something cheesy for the road!”

However, even as he was grumbling, Wallace was also working. And soon enough, the plane’s engine roared. Gromit grabbed a hold of the controls and waited for Wallace to get it.

“Now Gromit-chap, be reasonable,” said Wallace as he was buckling his seat-belt. “Surely, there’s time for a bit of Gouda-aaaaah!”

But there wasn’t time for any kind of cheese, so Gromit stomped on the accelerator and they were out of the garage, speeding across the deck. 

The sooner they got away from the awful ship, the better, in Gromit’s opinion.

_________________________________THE END?----------------------------

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know in comments below (or with kudos) if you liked my story.


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